The Tokyo Police Department Teams With ‘Patlabor’ For A Recruitment Drive, Will Probably Not Let You Actually Have A Mecha

For those of you planning on permanently relocating to Japan to take advantage of their readily available Kamen Rider churros and Attack on Titan deca-decker cheeseburgers, we have some good news on the job front! It seems that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is in need of some stalwart crimefighters to hit the streets, and to get the word out about their latest recr

I can't read Japanese, but I can only assume this poster means that they're recruiting for the division of the police that cruise around in giant robots battling giant robot crime. If that is, in fact, the case, I doubt they'll have any trouble meeting their recruitment quota.

Originally set in the far-off future year of 1998, Mobile Police Patlabor was an anime and manga franchise about a world where industrial tasks were performed by giant mechas called "Labors." This, naturally, led to giant mecha crime, which in turn led to the formation of the Patrol Labors (or patlabors, get it?) that were tasked with dealing with all that.

The campaign with the Tokyo PD coincides with the latest installment of the franchise, a live-action series set to kick off in April and lead to a feature film next year. There's a trailer for the first episode, if you're so inclined -- it's in Japanese, but jokes about burping are a truly universal language:

As for the recruitment drive, I question the wisdom of allowing rookie cops the chance to pilot such potentially destructive vehicles -- those things seem really big and that giant robot collapsible baton, while hilarious, could probably do some serious damage to a building. Still, it's a pretty solid way to get people interested in signing on.

At least, I hope it is. If this is just some tie-in thing, there's gonna be a lot of disappointed robot pilots at police headquarters tomorrow.